I Can't Quit You, Baby
by 88Ivories
Summary: A series of deaths related to a ghost story takes the boys and friend Jen to a girls dorm at a small college. Dean thinks this is going to be an easy case and an easy hookup ... too bad he was wrong on both counts! Set Season 1. Hurt, angst, and fun!


**A/N: This takes place in Season 1 between Phantom Traveler and Bloody Mary. My OC Jen is here. The short version is that she was Sam and Jess's close friend at Stanford, and started traveling with the boys when Jess dies. She is not a romantic interest, and much more than she seems, but the boys don't know that yet. For the longer version or if you want to know what Jen's deal is, see my other stories or my profile. I make tiny references to some of my other stories, though this can stand alone.**

**Thanks to LoupGarouAngel for being my awesome beta!**

* * *

Sam opened his phone and dialed. "Hey Jen. I know you are probably still busy, family or whatever, but I wanted to let you know that Dean found another case, and we're going to some little town called Meadville, Pennsylvania. Anyway, we should be there sometime tomorrow if you want to meet up." He hung up the phone looking somewhat dejected.

Dean came out of the store with a couple of subs and cans of soda and handed one of each off to Sam. They both got back in the car to eat.

"So?" Dean asked.

"Voicemail." Sam said.

"She said she'd catch back up to us, it's only been like, what, a week. Although she totally missed our flying adventures!" Dean tried to sound optimistic. He knew that Sam missed Jen. She was his only remaining link to Jess and life at school. Sam also seemed to sleep a lot better when she was around, and he looked like he hadn't slept in days. Sam tried to hide it, but Dean still knew the signs. The haphazard locks of hair and unfocused eyes were Sam's giveaways. Dean had no idea why Sam's sleep was deteriorating or if it was related to Jen's hiatus, but, either way, he was starting to worry.

Sam sighed. "Nine days actually." Sam turned to Dean and gave him a weak smile. "So, the case?"

_Well, at least he's interested. _Dean thought. He told the story between bites of the spicy Italian sub.

"There's this little school called Allegheny College, and there's been a bunch of suicides over the last 50 or so years, the most recent being last week. Some girl, Carrie Hall, jumped off some bridge they have there and smashed her head on the rocks below. Anyway, the majority of the suicides are girls, and all the girls are jumpers, although they seem to jump from different places. Sounds suspicious, right?"

Sam shrugged. "I don't know. It could be something. A lot of people kill themselves in college, it's stressful, you know. We got anything else."

"No, not really, and we can be at this place pretty quick."

Sam shrugged again. "All right."

That was a pretty easy compromise from Sam. Dean looked at his brother, dark circles far too apparent under his eyes and only just barely eating his sub. For Sam's sake, Dean started to hope that Jen found her way back to them quickly.

________________________________

The next afternoon they pulled into the town. At first it seemed pretty typical. They must have passed six fast food places on the main street through town. The school was slightly separated from the town up a bit of a hill with numerous red brick buildings all pretty close together. Just before the school Dean spotted what was probably the only cheap motel in the area, a place called the Meade Inn. It looked like a large Victorian house over a series of motel rooms built into a space that could have been a garage or two before.

Sam furrowed his eyebrows at the place. "Dude, this seems pretty scary, even for us."

Dean shrugged. "Did you see any other options?" They pulled in and got out of the car. They looked around for a moment trying to figure out where the office for this place was when they heard her voice.

"I thought I would catch you here."

Sam's eyes lit up as Jen smiled, waved, and walked toward them. Sam just barely kept himself from running toward her, but he did grab her in a huge bear hug as soon as she was close enough. After he let her go she took a step back and looked up at him.

"You look like crap, Sam." She said in an accusing tone.

Dean shouted as he walked over. "That's because he hasn't eaten since you left. Tell this boy to eat something." Sam rolled his eyes at his brother, but he was already starting to feel a bit better just seeing Jen.

She had gotten him through a few particularly tough nightmares at Stanford and the whole first month after Jess. Sam hadn't realized how much he was relying on her until the last week. It was odd actually, she had gotten a phone call, looked very serious, and then said that she had to deal with a family matter and she would be gone for about a week. They had offered to drive her somewhere, but she refused, and then the call from Jerry came and they were off to Pennsylvania without her.

"I guess you got the voicemail." Sam continued.

"Yeah. No problem. Told you guys I would be back. Now, let's all get a room and then some food, I am starving." She gave Sam a pointed look and walked around the corner of the building. The boys followed and soon they were settled. Jen took them around the corner for lunch to a cute little sandwich and soup place where they filled Jen in on the case. The lunch location was not Dean's favorite type, but it was perfect for Sam and he did finally eat enough to satisfy Dean. Dean did seem to like the coffee there, though. The trio then began on foot up the hill to the college.

________________________

One of the first buildings they encountered was the library, so they figured that was a good place to start. Sam and Jen headed for the local history rooms and Dean decided to work the girl at the front desk.

"How can I help you?" the soft spoken girl with long curly blond hair asked, putting down the book she was reading.

"That is a loaded question, honey." Dean responded giving her his winning smile.

She was not impressed. Instead she raised her eyebrows at him. "Which you failed to answer."

Dean tried to recover, but stammered for a moment while he tried to remember what they were there for. "Yeah, um, I'm from U. Magazine, University Magazine, and I'm writing an article on the extremes of college stress."

The girl chuckled. "Well, you've come to the right place, nothing but stress here."

Dean raised his eyebrows and continued, "Anyway, I read that a girl killed herself here not that long ago, and I heard the circumstances were suspicious. Do you know anything about that?"

The girl's eyes fell and she was silent for a moment. _Crap._ Thought Dean. _Picked the wrong one._

Then the blond looked up again. "Yeah, Carrie Hall, she was in my roommate's seminar class."

Dean breathed a slight sigh of relief. "So, you didn't know her personally then?"

"No, but Katie, that's my roommate, said that she couldn't believe it because she had just helped her put together a presentation that she would have given the next day in class. She said that there was just no way Carrie was depressed and she didn't seem too stressed out either."

Dean nodded along with the story. "Well, that's interesting. This roommate of yours, do you think I could talk to her? Maybe we could meet up later somewhere. I'm sure there's a place you kids all hang out."

"Well, I've got a fifteen page paper to write, so I'm a little busy, but you can probably find my roommate tonight down at the Penny Bar, that's where everyone goes on Wednesdays."

"The Penny Bar, huh, that's interesting."

The girl laughed as she picked her book back up. "Yeah, you'll see when you get there."

Dean wandered out into the library to see what Jen and Sam had uncovered. He found the two of them on separate computers alongside the bookshelves and pulled up a chair between them.

"Okay, Geek squad, what have we got?"

Sam groaned, Jen giggled. Sam turned to his brother. "Please, Dean, anything but Geek Squad."

"What?" Dean gave them an innocent look. Jen turned to him, carefully not laughing.

"Sam worked at Best Buy one winter at Stanford." She said.

Dean rolled his eyes. "Well, I'm sure that suited you."

"Anyway," Sam cut in, "I pulled the obits of the other suicides. The first one I could find was in 1953, then 1960, 1968, 1971, and it goes on with no real pattern. All jumpers that I could find."

Jen pushed back and the boys turned to her. "I think I may have something to start with, the Brooks Hall Ghost. Brooks Hall is the girl's dorm here, and this legend says that there used to be a ritual when a boy wanted to pin his girlfriend ..."

"Pin?" Dean asked.

Jen rolled her eyes. "It's the old version of 'going steady' like a pre-engagement."

"Oh." Dean shrugged. "What? How am I supposed to know that?"

Jen turned back to the computer. "So, it says that the girl being pinned would stand on the balcony and the boy would have to climb up to pin the pin on her."

"Wait! There was an actual pin?" Dean was looking even more confused.

"Dude!" Sam cut in. "Do you want to hear the story or not?"

Dean sat back in his chair and waved his hand at Jen. "Go on." Sam was still looking at Dean with his bitch-face. Dean just raised his eyebrows a little higher and turned to listen to Jen finish.

"So, the legend is that the guy fell to his death while climbing, and the girl was so distraught that she ran to her room on the third floor and jumped out the window. Supposedly, that room has been haunted ever since."

Sam nodded and folded his arms across his chest. "Well, that sounds about right, doesn't it."

Dean nodded as well, and cracked open a huge smile. "Yeah, and it's a girl's dorm. This is going to be a great case!"

Jen and Sam looked at each other and sighed.


End file.
